adidas: more than 100,000 pairs of shoes, with 3D printed soles, to be manufactured by 2018

The German sports equipment manufacturer adidas announced the "Futurecraft 4D", a running shoe with "midsoles crafted with light and oxygen using Digital Light Synthesis, a technology pioneered by Carbon", and provides for the establishment of "fast and large scaling with 100,000 pairs of high performance footwear by the end of 2018," said the brand on 11/04/2017.

The soles of the "Futurecraft 4D" will be printed in 3D with "Digital Light Synthesis, a breakthrough process that uses digital light projection, oxygen-permeable optics and programmable liquid resins to generate high-performance, durable polymeric products," and developed by the American 3D company Carbon, based in Silicon Valley (California). 300 pairs of Futurecraft 4D will be made by April 2017. They will be followed by "5,000 pairs of Futurecraft 4D will be available at retail in fall/winter 2017 with further scaling in the coming seasons," explained the German brand on 11/04/2017.

With the technology developed by Carbon 3D, it takes only twenty minutes to print the sole of the shoe in adidas stores, for example…